Cost in Space

LUC BESSON, PROVEN MASTER OF THE SCI-FI GENRE, BETS HIS STUDIO ON A RACE OF PRICEY, PEARLY ALIENS

MOVIES: THE BUSINESS

BY CHRIS LEE

WHEN LUC BESSON’S now classic The Fifth Element arrived in theaters two decades ago, American viewers were stumped. The campy sci-firomp, featuring Bruce Willis as a taxi driver reluctantly saving the universe, was called “one of the great goofy movies” by Roger Ebert, but it was also that year’s worst-performing summer film.